Shirley Valentine Bradshaw (Pauline Collins) is a 42-year-old housewife living in suburban Liverpool, England, returns home where she has a wide-ranging conversation with her kitchen wall while preparing chips and egg for her husband Joe's (Bernard Hill) dinner. She knows Joe will be upset that they are not having steak.Earlier in the day....Shirley's eccentric neighbor Gillian (Julia McKenzie) asked Shirley to feed their bloodhound while she and her husband leave town for a few days, and informed Shirley they were vegans, including the dog. Shirley realized the unhappy dog was starved for meat, so she fed him the steak she had purchased for dinner. Joe will not find it amusing.In another flashback, Shirley and Joe laughed a lot when first married. When they first moved into their new house, they playfully splashed white paint on each other while painting their new kitchen, but that was a long time ago. Somewhere in their marriage, Shirley lost her own identity and, now that their two grown children have moved out, she wants to leave but fears there is no place to go.Back in the present, Joe comes home from work to find her telling the wall (i.e. the viewers) that she longs to drink a glass of wine sitting by the sea at sunset. Joe is frustrated that his dinner is not ready. Shirley tells him to watch television and she resumes her conversation with the wall.Earlier, Shirley had a lunch date with her divorced friend Jane (Alison Steadman) where she tells Shirley that she recently won a two-week trip for two to Greece and invited Shirley. Shirley protested that she could not go, but Jane insisted.Shirley looks longingly at the Greek travel poster hidden inside her pantry and wonders how to tell Joe.In another flashback, a young Shirley (Gillian Kearney) remembers that during her school years, she wanted to travel the world as a flight attendant, but was not as clever as the beautiful, blond Marjorie (Catherine Duncan). Shirley was a rebel who wore short skirts, smoked cigarettes, and pretended to hate everything. She taunted Marjorie but really wanted to be her.After leaving school, Shirley had not seen Marjorie until recently when she was caught in a rain storm and splashed by a limo arriving at a hotel. The adult Marjorie (Joanna Lumley) dashed out of the limo to apologize, recognized her and invited Shirley up to her suite. Wet and bedraggled, Shirley knew Marjorie, who must be a flight attendant, would use this opportunity to exact revenge, but as they drank champagne in the hotel suite, Marjorie revealed that she is a high-class hooker. They bonded as they realized each wanted to be like the other in school. After Marjorie then left, Shirley realizes that she needs to find her own happiness.Shirley's reminiscing is interrupted when Joe returns to the kitchen. Furious about not having steak for dinner, Joe shoves his plate across the table and the food lands in Shirley's lap. She opens the pantry door, smears egg on the poster and tells him she is going there. He believes she is secretly saving for a holiday, insists he is not going to Greece and storms out.While shopping for her trip, Shirley runs into Gillian in the lingerie department and shocks Gillian by confiding that she is buying sexy lingerie to wear for her lover on their trip to Greece.On the day of the trip, Shirley's doorbell unexpectedly rings. Her daughter, Millandra (Tracie Bennett), had a fight with her roommate and is moving back home. Leaving her suitcases for Shirley to lug inside, Millandra goes to her room and demands a cup of cocoa, but when she learns that her mother is going to Greece, she becomes upset and storms out. Shirley is distraught and ready to stay home, but Gillian, who believed Shirley's story about having an affair, sneaks over with a silk robe for the trip. Reinvigorated, Shirley slaps a note for Joe on the poster of Greece and leaves.On the plane, Jane meets a man and, upon their arrival in Greece, Jane leaves with him to have dinner at his villa. Although the other English tourists complain constantly as they travel to their hotel, Shirley loves the beautiful island. Jane does not return for days, but Shirley finds a secluded corner of the beach and makes friends with a Greek rock.In the hotel dining room one day, everyone is silent as Shirley walks through alone, but Jeanette and Dougie, two obnoxious tourists, quickly insist that she join them. They rudely joke about Greece and its people, so Shirley lectures them on Greece's historical contributions. After dinner, she walks along the beach to a local taverna and asks the proprietor, Costas (Tom Conti), if he will move a table and chair to the edge of the water so she can fulfill her dream of having wine by the sea at sunset. He happily complies but it is not what she imagined; she sadly reflects that she has allowed herself to live a small life.Costas escorts Shirley back to the hotel and offers to take her sailing the next day, promising the offer is about sailing, not sex. Shirley agrees, but the next morning Jane finally arrives, begs to be forgiven for her selfishness and says she is ready to start their vacation. Shocked when Costas arrives, Jane insists that Shirley is naive and should not go, but Shirley ignores her.During that day, Costas and Shirley sail around the island, stopping in a small bay for lunch. Shirley wants to swim but has no suit, so they skinny dip. She knows Costas will keep his promise, but she wants to make love to him. Shirley and Costas then make love on the boat for the first time. As they sail back, Shirley realizes she has fallen in love with Greece and the idea of living there.At home in England, Joe tells the kitchen wall that he really does love Shirley.In Greece, Costas' niece's wedding procession passes through town. Costas sees Shirley at a café and invites her to join them. She has fun at the wedding and reception but leaves early to take a walk and contemplate the idea of not returning home.The next day, Shirley tells Jane that she is going to stay but Jane ridicules her plans. Eventually, Shirley realizes she must go back. However, the next day at the airport Shirley cannot get on the plane. She rushes back to the taverna and finds Costas seducing another woman. Costas is stunned to see Shirley, but she has not come back for him. She wants a job and says she can run the taverna while Costas romances women on the sailboat. Costas soon leaves for Athens after telling Shirley that his older sister is sick and wants him to visit her. Shirley allows him to go.As Shirley enjoys her new life, Joe repeatedly calls for her to tell her come home, but she refuses. One day, Shirley and Joe's son, Brian (Gareth Jefferson), convinces Joe to go to Greece. Preparing for his arrival, Shirley sets up a table by the ocean and waits for Joe, who does not immediately recognize her. The film ends as Joe joins Shirley Valentine at her table by the sea and they sip wine as they watch the sun set.